The five shortlisted firms were chosen from a panel of 15 early stage and growth stage companies who presented their ideas to an audience of angel investors, venture capitalists, and global bank decision-makers on the second day of the Finextra Future Money show in Canary Wharf.

The three early-stage startup finalists are:

• Pariti Technologies helping people to avoid high-interest debt, access fairer rates of credit, and build a more secure financial future, by offering tools, guidance, and access to low-cost loans
• Revolut allowing customers to exchange currencies at interbank rates, send them through social networks, and spend money with a multi-currency card accepted anywhere
• Sedicii wwhich uses technology based on the Zero Knowledge Proof Protocol that eliminates the transmission, storage and exposure of private data during authentication or identity verification

The two growth-stage startups finalists are:

• Elliptic using the blockchain technology to securely and transparently transfer and manage a range of financial assets
• xWare42, whose product xPay makes transaction contents more intuitive by giving customers a documented picture of their purchases

Fabian Vandenreydt, head of markets management, Innotribe says: "London was once again a great kick-off to the Innotribe Startup Challenge and it was exciting to see inspiring companies present their innovations to a packed room. With many financial services companies and large banks having their headquarters in the city, London is definitely a unique innovation environment for the startup community."

The London event was the first regional showcase to be held in 2015. Next steps of the Startup Challenge programme will be the regional showcases to be held in Cape Town on 6 May, Singapore on 28 May, and New York on 18 June.